Frightening ceremony of initiation of students during the middle ages. Photo

In the medieval University the young students expect a lot of surprises.

In the Middle ages to get into University was quite difficult. The entrant’s expected number of tests for the worst of it is the ritual of initiation into students. It was the custom not for the faint of heart.

When in medieval Europe, the first universities, there was an unexpected problem. Young students have often been rebellious, full of youthful maximalism. Sometimes they did not have Council. But wise teachers know the way how to cope with the energetic crowd. Before you start training, young people were subjected to all sorts of trials to break their pride to overcome gluttony and other sins.

The tool by which applicants “deleted” horns and fangs. Sweden, the seventeenth century.

One of the medieval traditions are actually anticipated hazing. Young students were obliged to “serve” the students. They were given humiliating tasks, forced to pay in taverns and public baths.

But the strangest custom of medieval education was Deposite. This practice existed in the German lands and in Sweden from the late FIFTEENTH century until the mid XVIII century. Applying to study in local universities, the students had to pass a series of sophisticated tests.

The students in Paris, con. The XIV century.

“Green” students, and at that time were educated only men came to the University and submitted to the Dean. When they have accumulated a sufficient amount to initiate, Dean announced the date and time. He was also appointed the depositor, the teacher responsible for conducting the ceremony.

The head of the ritual were distributed to students items so that they “adorned themselves”: hats, glasses, combs, scissors, clothes “of different patterns and colors.” The latter usually meant my jester costume.

Ritual of dedication to the students at Uppsala University, Sweden. The XVII century.

The depositor requested the students to open your mouth wide, and they had two fangs of a boar that kept, his teeth, with orders not to pull out. The head clung to the fake horns and donkey ears.

Under the command of mentor the students marched in a specially prepared audience. The depositor drove them with a stick as if they were a herd of oxen or donkeys. In the room the students made a circle around the teacher who insulted them, making fun of bestial appearance, and then gave a lecture on “the evils and stupidity of youth”, the need for “improvement and discipline through the study”.

The ritual of initiation into students. Carved wood, XVI century

The depositor asked tough questions, sometimes in the form of riddles. If the student responded incorrectly or too slowly, then got on the head with a sack of sand. Often the blows were so many that the sand literally scored eyes. Because of the fangs in his mouth, the students could not speak articulately, even if you knew the answer. It was supposed to its own set of insults. The box, called them pigs, because the tusks symbolize the sin of gluttony. It was believed that the perception of young people to study obscured passion for food and drink.

Tools of the depositor from Leipzig University.

Then the leader of the ceremony asked the students whether they are ready to abandon their sinful thoughts. Agreed all, and then the depositor using tongs, pulled the fangs of a boar, symbolizing the end of overeating. He removed the horns, which are rude, and donkey’s ears, donkey hides the inner nature. The depositor “purified” the ears of his players a huge toothpick, brutally had my head shaved with a wooden razor, cut the hair with an axe. At the end of the procedure “convert” poured on the head of water, symbolizing the acquisition of purity and freedom from harmful habits.

A document certifying that Ernst Ludwig Junck was a rite of dedication to the students at the University of Marburg on 16 September 1791.

After the ceremony, the students received a certificate of the ceremony of depositio. Now sinless, they could be admitted to the University. In most German schools, this paper was considered to be a serious document, and the applicant has not passed the rite of passage, did not allow for further study.

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